Koren Johnson makes a commitment to join the Louisville basketball team and coach Pat Kelsey through the transfer portal.
The current holder of the Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year title is set to join Pat Kelsey’s debut roster for the Louisville men’s basketball team. Koren Johnson, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound sophomore guard, who played the last two seasons at Washington, has committed to the Cardinals. This decision follows his recent campus visit, as reported by On3’s Joe Tipton. Hailing from Seattle, Johnson becomes Kelsey’s sixth addition via the NCAA transfer portal this offseason. At the time of his commitment, 247Sports ranked him as the 121st transfer prospect. He still has two years of eligibility left.
Joining Johnson on the 2024-25 roster are J’Vonne Hadley, a senior guard from Colorado; Terrence Edwards Jr., a redshirt junior wing from James Madison; and two players who were part of Kelsey’s last team at Charleston: junior guard Reyne Smith and freshman forward James Scott.
Kelsey has also secured a commitment from Aly Khalifa, a junior center from BYU. However, the 6-11, 270-pound Egyptian plans to redshirt during the 2024-25 season while rehabilitating a knee injury.
During Washington’s 2023-24 season, Johnson appeared in 31 games, starting five. He averaged 11.1 points on 41.1% shooting, making 41 of 110 (37.3%) from beyond the arc. He also maintained a 1.97 assist-turnover ratio, alongside 2.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game, across 24.2 minutes on the court.
Former Huskies head coach Mike Hopkins commented in March, “When he’s played well, look at what we’ve done. We’ve been a different team.”
His standout performance came on Feb. 15 when he achieved a career-best of 30 points during a victory against Stanford. This marked the highest point total scored by a Huskies player coming off the bench since 2002, and the most by an underclassman since 2017.
Washington concluded the season with a 17-15 (9-11 Pac-12) record, leading to the departure of Hopkins.
Prior to his departure, Hopkins described Johnson as “arguably the most talented player in our program.”
“He can both score and distribute,” Hopkins stated, as reported by Dawgman. “It’s the consistency aspect that’s key. He brings dynamism to the team.”
According to ESPN, Johnson was ranked as the 25th-best point guard and the top recruit in Washington state during the 2022 recruitment cycle. He attended Garfield High School, playing under coach Brandon Roy, a former NBA lottery pick who had an illustrious career as an All-American with the Huskies.
As of Monday, every scholarship player from Louisville’s 2023-24 season had opted to enter the transfer portal, which remains open until May 1.
As of the latest update, five of them had secured spots at new institutions: Skyy Clark (UCLA), Tre White (Illinois), JJ Traynor (DePaul), Curtis Williams (Georgetown), and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (N.C. State).
